1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for providing a service for speaking by use of a terminal device implementing a function of connecting to the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
An explosive spread of cellular (or portable) phones and PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) (which are generically called [mobile telephones]) could be seen over the recent years in Japan, and now the majority of people have the mobile telephones. Under this circumstance, a scheme of providing the mobile telephones with much higher functions is being accelerated, and, with the spread of the Internet, there appear mobile telephones each implementing (an Internet connecting function) an E-mail delivering/receiving function and a simple Web browser as well. This type of mobile telephone as a single unit is capable of connecting to the Internet, and therefore a user thereof is able to deliver and receive an E-mail and to browse a Web site by use of this mobile telephone.
This is followed by a more active scene in the businesses utilizing the mobile telephones each implementing the Internet connecting function. This derives from the following reasons:
(i) If accessible via the mobile telephone to the Web site as an advertisement medium, it follows that the advertisement is browsed irrespective of where the user is.
(ii) A service enterprise (company) for a mobile telephone service provides a Web-based service provider with a service for collecting, as an agent, service fees from the users. Therefore, the service provider can easily open a variety of Web-based and charged-fee information providing services and Internet shopping sites etc.
On the other hand, a charge for the speech communication (call) of the mobile telephone becomes cheaper and cheaper year by year owing to competitions between the mobile telephone companies but is still higher than a speech communication of a fixed type telephone. There is a high need for being able to have a call with a cheaper fee. Hence, for example, a service in which the service provider discounts the speech communication charge on condition that the user is to browse an advertisement or a more economical telephone service utilizing a private telephone network, is known effective in terms of the speech communication charge.
A prior art for providing the telephone service (which will hereinafter be called a [purpose-oriented service]) in which the service provider is burdened with or discounts the speech communication charge, is categorized into a technology (a first prior art) making use of a called party charge telephone number and a technology (a second prior art) making use of a callback.
(1) First prior art
Normally, a caller is charged a fee for the speech communication. By contrast, one of the common carriers provides a service in which when giving a speech communication by use of a specified telephone number, a charge is imposed on a called party. For example, a telephone number starting with “0120” used by NTT is known as a free dial, and a charge for the speech communication using the free dial is imposed on the called party. If a system as shown in FIG. 15 is configured by utilizing the called party charge telephone number typified by the free dial described above, the purpose-oriented service can be provided.
Referring to FIG. 15, the service provider installs a telephone control unit connected via two telephone lines to the common carrier. One (a telephone number 1) of the two telephone lines is defined as a called party charge telephone number, and this telephone number is disclosed to the service users. The system illustrated in FIG. 15 operates as follows:
1) A user of a telephone A1, when giving a call to a telephone B1 (a telephone number 12), at first dials a telephone number 11.
2) The telephone control unit automatically answers and connects a PB (Push Button) receiver provided in the telephone control unit to the line.
3) The user of the telephone A1 transmits a user's ID and password (PW) by PB signals.
4) The telephone control unit checks the user's ID and PW.
5) The use of the telephone A1 transmits a telephone number 12 by the PB signals.
6) The telephone control unit, upon receiving the telephone number 12, catches other telephone line and originates call to the telephone B1 with the telephone number 12.
7) The telephone B1 makes a ringing, and, when the user of the telephone B1 answers, a response signal is transmitted back to the telephone control unit.
8) The telephone control unit, when receiving the response signal, sets the telephone A1 and the telephone B1 in a speech communication state.
Note that the user's ID and PW are transmitted as the PB signals in the example given above. If a message received contains a caller number, a telephone number of the telephone capable of utilizing the service is registered beforehand in the telephone control unit, and the telephone control unit checks the caller number when receiving the call, thereby making it possible to omit the transmission of the user's ID and PW by the PB signals.
In the operation 1) described above, the user of the telephone A1 dials the telephone number 11 defined as the called party charge telephone number. Therefore, the charge for the speech communication between the telephone A1 and the telephone control unit is imposed on the service provider installing the telephone control unit. Further, if the telephone number 12 is not a called party charge telephone number, a charge for a speech communication between the telephone control unit and the telephone B1 is also imposed on the service provider. Hence, the user of the telephone A1 is able to speak to the user of the telephone B1 without being burdened with the speech communication charge. If providing such a service that the service provider is burdened with a part of the speech communication charge, a system is configured, wherein an amount of money gained by subtracting the fees imposed on the service provider from a total sum of the charges for the speech communications between the telephone A1 and the telephone control unit and the charges for the speech communications between the telephone control unit and the telephone B1, is accumulated in a database per user's ID, and the settlement is made later on.
(2) Second Prior art
There is a method using the callback instead of making use of the called party charge telephone number. As described in the first prior art, though possible of taking the PB signal based architecture, if the telephone a implements the Internet connecting function, an Internet based architecture can also be taken. FIG. 16I a diagram showing an example of a system architecture utilizing the Internet for actualizing the method using the callback.
Referring to FIG. 16, the service provider prepares the telephone control unit and a server device connected to the Internet, and the telephone control unit can be controlled from the server device. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the server device has a function as a web server, the telephone A is capable of accessing the server device on the basis of HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).
The system illustrated in FIG. 16 operates as follows:
1) The user of the telephone A2, when trying to give a call to the telephone B2 (a telephone number 22) , at first accesses, based on HTTP, the server device installed by the service provider.
2) The server device transmits a log-in screen to the telephone A2.
3) The user of the telephone A2 sends a user's ID and PW to the telephone A2.
4) The server device checks the user's ID and PW, and, if a result is “OK”, transmits a telephone number input screen to the telephone A2.
5) The user of the telephone A2 transmits the telephone number 22 and a telephone number 23 as a telephone number of the telephone A2 to the server device.
6) The server device transmits an accept confirmation screen to the telephone A2.
7) The telephone A2 disconnects from the server device.
8) The server device controls the telephone control unit and dials the telephone number 23.
9) The telephone A2 makes a ringing and, when the user of the telephone A2 answers, a response signal is transmitted to the telephone control unit.
10) When the telephone control unit receives the response signal, the server device controls the telephone control unit and originates a call to the telephone B2 with a telephone number 22.
11) The telephone B2 makes a ringing and, when the user of the telephone B2 answers, a response signal is transmitted to the telephone control unit.
12) When the telephone control unit receives the response signal, the server device controls the telephone control unit and sets the telephone A2 and the telephone B2 in the call state.
In this example, the telephone control unit gives the calls to the telephones A2 and B2. Therefore, the service provider installing the telephone control unit is burdened with both of the charge for the speech communication between the telephone control unit and the telephone A2 and the charge for the speech communication between the telephone control unit and the telephone B2. In the case of providing a service in which some proportion of the speech communication charge is imposed on the service provider, as in the example of the first prior art, there is configured the system wherein the fee the user of the telephone A2 is claimed to pay is accumulated in the database per user's ID, and the settlement is made later on.
Further, in this example, the user's ID and PW, the telephone number 22 and the telephone number 23 are transmitted via the Internet to the server device installed by the service provider. Therefore, the service provider enables the user of the telephone A to easily browse the advertisement displayed on a Web page. For instance, if the log-in screen described in the operation 2) and the telephone number input screen described in the operation 4) contain advertisements, the user of the telephone A2 inevitably browses the advertisements when inputting the data. This makes it feasible to easily actualize such a service that the speech communication charge is discounted on condition that the user is to browse the advertisement.
Moreover, in the case of inputting the user's ID and PW in the operation 3) and inputting the telephone numbers 22 and 23 in the operation 5), the user of the telephone A2 inputs while watching the screen and, after confirming on the screen that the data inputted are correct, operates the telephone A2 to transmit the inputted data to the server device. It is therefore possible to obtain a higher operability than in the case of inputting the data by the PB signals and to restrain a transmission of erroneous data due to an input mistake.
There arise, however, the following problems inherent in the first prior art shown in FIG. 15.
If the user's ID and PW transmitted as the PB signals are invalid, even when the connection to the telephone B1 gets uncompleted as in the case of the telephone number 12 being busy in line, the charge for the speech communication between the telephone A1 and the telephone control unit is required, and hence this is uneconomical to the service provider.
The service provider installs a plurality of telephone control units, and the called party charge telephone number (the telephone numbers 11) is different in each telephone control unit. In this case, if the telephone A1 is a fixed type telephone, only one telephone number of the telephone control unit closest thereto may be announced. By contrast, if the telephone A1 is classified as a mobile telephone, the closest telephone control unit may differ depending on where the telephone A1 exists. It is, however, difficult to have a plurality of telephone number announced by the service user and the telephone control units separately used depending on the location of the telephone.
The transmission of the user's ID and PW and the telephone number 12 by the PB signals involves a key operation of the telephone by the user, and the operability thereof declines. Further, if the number of digits to be inputted increases, a probability of causing an input mistake might rise.
Even when the telephone A1 has the Internet connecting function, if the architecture is as shown in FIG. 15, only the telephone function is used, and hence this does not suit the service in which the speech communication charge is discounted on condition that the user is to browse the advertisement.
Moreover, the second prior art has problems that follow.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 16, the telephone control unit at first performs dialing to the telephone A2 (the telephone number 23) and, when receiving the response signal from the telephone A2 gives the call to the telephone B2 (the telephone number 22). Therefore, even if the line of the telephone B2 is busy or if there is no answer, the charge for the speech communication between the telephone control unit and the telephone A2 occurs (see FIG. 17). This is uneconomical to the service provider.
In view of the problems described above, if schemed to originate a call to the telephone B2 before the telephone control unit receives the response signal from the telephone A2, there arises a case where the telephone A2 is busy in line or being called though the telephone B2 answers. In this case, when the user of the telephone B2 picks up the receiver upon a ringing of the telephone B2, the user hears an on-talk tone or a calling tone (see FIG. 18). This can not be allowed for the general telephone service. Accordingly, an inevitable operation is that the telephone control unit calls the telephone A2 ahead and, after receiving a response from the telephone A2, calls the telephone B2.